Of Scripts and Speeches

Well, I'm no speech writer, but I did write and deliver a farewell/retirement speech today that seemed well received. My dear colleague Judy Lanier retired today after having worked on our team for seven years. I was asked to say a few words, which was easy since she is such a wonderful co-worker. So that's my excuse for a no-writing day today. I'm also beginning a collaboration on a program script that will involve interviews and film. The writer/director has a strong concept already--I'll just be massaging and editing. But it should be a challenge--especially working with someone else.

Another Week Bites the Dust

Somehow this week got by without my being able to write for any length of time--a drip here, a drab there, but nothing substantial. Good thing I'm not trying to make a living at this! Still in the hopper: Which End Up? rewrite, Daniel's Day (in the research stage), and Lovers of Laundry (in the mulling-it-over-in-my-mind stage). I may never have mentioned Lovers of Laundry. It will be a non-fiction piece (an article?) about things that keep Christians from knowing God based on a concept from I Peter 1:8.

Children's Science Books

I'm broadening my chart/audience for the children's science-y book Which End Up? (I don't want to presume to call it a true science book. . . .) To do this, I'm researching types of animal books published and then cross-referencing that information with publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts. This should help as I seek to re-submit this story. This may be better suited to an article than a book, but I'm going for the book angle first. So far I have three possibilities. I'm sure there are many more out there.

Got any ideas for me?

Pond to the Publisher

Another story went out the door yesterday. It was Hamilton's Pond and is based on an anecdote about my grandfather. This one I was able to send by email, so that meant no making of mailing labels, copies, etc. I'm quite excited about the possibilities for this piece. It has a fun story line that just begs for great illustrations. (Oh, how I wish I could draw!) Here's a line from the story, just to whet the appetite:

Every time it rained, the street in front of Mr. Hamilton’s tidy white house with the perfect picket fence became a pond. Not a puddle. Not a pool. A pond. Some folks called it a lake, but they were fond of exaggerating.

Any idea what will happen with/at/to Hamilton's pond? Let me know your guesses!

Up and Running

On Wednesday of this week, I took a couple of prime morning hours and wrote in a quiet house with the lovely smell of freshly made coffee to inspire me. My wondrous husband had roped the kids into cleaning house the night before so that I couldn't say, "Well, I wanted to write, but the laundry was calling me" or "The bathroom floor needed attention." (Why is it we get distracted from things we enjoy doing by things we don't enjoy doing?) I very nearly had an emotional train wreck when there was initially no coffee in the house, but hubby came to the rescue again by running up to my folks' house and borrowing some. All of my usual excuses gone, I hammered away at my laptop and ended up nearly finishing the story I'm calling Hamilton's Pond and fixing up October Bell for another go with another publisher.

Tomorrow I should have time to work on Which End Up? and putting the final touches on Hamilton's Pond. I can email the pond one, so I'm planning to finish out the week with that submission. I'm glad that I have charts for all of this because it's starting to get confusing.

Blog Review

Becky Bilby at inthepages.blogspot.com just reviewed my book, Mumsi Meets a Lion. She's a children's librarian in Iowa who really seems to know her stuff. I've been following her blog for some time, and I noticed that she was looking for books to review. So I sent her mine! Check it out!

Missed It by That Much

My second story didn't quite make it to the mailbox yesterday. (My goal was two in the mail by the 10th.) But I made strong headway on the second one yesterday thanks to my husband's carving out some time for me to work alone on it. It's not the one I had originally intended to be the second submission, but it's one I've been working on for a while. I believe it will go in the mail next week to someone. I'm very excited about its possibilities. It has been probably the easiest story for me to write--the words really just tumbled out. I would love to see what a great illustrator could do with this story about a man who solves his problem in an unusual way.

In the Mail

Just returned from a trip to the post office where I mailed my new Toad and Spider story off to three--count 'em--three publishers. The title I put on it is "Eight Is Just Right." At least one of them requires 24 weeks to wait for answer. I'm no mathmetician, but that seems like about six months to me! Yikes. I do have a sense of accomplishment just by virtue of the fact that I put something else out there. I'm not sure I can get the other story ready for mailing tomorrow, but I'm going to work on it tonight and see what happens. At any rate, I'm halfway to the goal I set for myself last week.

Starting Over

So I'm starting over on "October Bell." The story had lost its simplicity in a web of over-worked phrases and pressurized metaphors. It's just a story about a boy and his new mom and the celebration of that. I actually took the old story, which had been divided into pages, and tried to state the essence of what was on that page in a sentence or two. I think the result might be better than what was there before.

Hey, what about a book called The President's New Plan? It's about a President who thinks that he is the man with the ultimate plan, but when he presents his idea . . . it's terrible. Everyone around him tries to act like the plan is awesome because they're afraid/ashamed/embarrassed/whatever . . . sound familiar? Sound really familiar?

Officially Freelancing

After I fill out the paperwork, I'll officially be freelancing for a Christian publisher in Colorado. I received word today that they were pleased with my writing test, so I'm in. It will be nice to be able to work some from home. The person who contacted me said that work will be "sporadic," but that's even better!

Gotta run make a chocolate ganache cake to celebrate!

More Goal Setting

I'm continuing to work on two main projects mostly. These are the revision/resubmission of "October Bell" (sometimes referred to as "Autumn Bell") and "Frog and Spider." I'm hoping to get these polished into submittable shape by next week some time. I still have "Which End Up?" floating out there at New Leaf, but I won't know the outcome for another three weeks at least. I've already re-worked that one for another submission should this not work out.

"October Bell" has been giving me trouble as I attempt to incorporate editor feedback. Making the thread of the bell more visible without making it stick out too much is tricky. Also, plumbing the depths of an eight-year-old's emotions is difficult--my protagonist feels as deeply as an adult but would not be able to express his feelings in a mature way. Still working on finding the balance.

So here are my goals in black and white: revise and submit two pieces by April 10. There, I've said it. Now all I have to do is follow through. . . .